A Conundrum of Roses
by mariewhinnett
Summary: Life was supposed to be peaceful after Voldemort, wasn't it? Well the life of one Rose Weasley certainly isn't! Especially when dealing with that idiot Malfoy..
1. Chapter 1

Rose stalked down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, her eyelids stinging with angry tears and her face a mask of righteous fury. How dare James go and turn her hair green on her first day of Hogwarts! How dare he?

She flung herself into a compartment as the train jolted, murmuring obscenities picked up from her father in one of his sulkier moods under her breath before realising there was a dark haired boy elegantly perusing a book before her.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you!' she said breathlessly.

'That atrocity has been forgiven,' he said, his lips twisting in a wry smile as he carefully placed his book down ( something Rose was glad to see, as seeing how one treated books was a great judge of character) and held a pale, long fingered hand out in greeting.

'Izar Black, pleased to meet you,' he said with a smile.

Rose eagerly grasped the proffered hand, faltering as she registered what he said.

'Black? I- I thought that house had died out in the last war?'

He smiled again.

'Oh, I'm just a distant cousin of the Blacks you must have heard of. My family has lived in France since my great grandfather moved. We aren't like the Blacks that seem to have gained notoriety in England.'

Rose smiled back at him, but her mind was whirring. She heavily doubted the truth of his words, seeing as he was named in the traditional star manner of the Blacks, and now that she looked more closely, his features greatly resembled pictures she had seen of Uncle Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, and slightly even those of the blond Malfoys she had seen on the platform.

'Rose Weasley, at your service,'

He gracefully raised an eyebrow.

'Weasley? Seems like I'm not the only one with a well-known family!'

Rose flushed at the mention of her family's fame and was thankfully saved at the arrival of the trolley lady.

'Anything for you, m'dears?'

Rose fumbled for her bag as Izar waved an imperial hand at the woman.

'Miss Weasley and I will have some of everything as I have been unable to gauge her tastes yet,' he said smilingly.

Rose's expression fell as he handed over galleons to the lady. Blatant chauvinism! Merlin, did this prat ever stop smiling?

'I'm not being sexist! You can pay next time!' he said, apparently reading her mind.

She spluttered.

'Are you a legilimens or something?'

'No, just an occlumens,' he said mildly, picking up his discarded book.

She gaped again.

'Want to play Exploding Snap?' he asked.

Rose nodded, intrigued by this charming, mysterious pureblood who spent the next few hours burning her eyebrows off.

Rose fidgeted uncomfortably in the line for the Sorting. She knew her mother was very accepting, but her father was a Gryffindor through and through and she knew he expected that of her as well. Her head jerked up.

'Black, Izar!'

She heard a few angry titters break out around the hall, and leaned forward to see Izar's face, catching Scorpius Malfoy's bewildered expression, Iris Parkinson's calculating smirk and Al's general unknowingness. She rolled her eyes and concentrated on Izar's face. It was a smooth, blank, porcelain mask that did not falter throughout the long minutes he sat under the battered hat. As soon as she thought he was probably going to become a Ravenclaw, as his love of literature and books rivalled her own, the hat shouted

'SLYTHERIN!'

And he was greeted with polite applause, though the Gryffindors were evidently eyeing him with a mix of hatred and suspicion. Everyone knew of Bellatrix Black, Voldemort's second in command, and while Sirius Black was a martyred hero, and Andromeda a beautiful blood traitor the rest were generally considered scum of the Earth.

Rose zoned out until Scorpius Malfoy was called up. He bore a slight resemblance to Izar, but had the same, pointed, aristocratic features of his father, while Izar was handsome in a darker way, with sharply slanting cheekbones, shadowed eyes and a graceful stride.

Malfoy seemed to be going through some sort of internal struggle. His emotions were not masked like Izar's and he was clearly arguing with the hat, and after a full five minutes the atmosphere in the room had changed from charged with anger at the Death Eater spawn and was now full of exasperation.

Rose had read in Hogwarts, A History that longer than five minutes under the hat made it a Hat stall, and meant the person had strong traits of two or more houses. She pondered his personality until shocking everyone in the room, the Hat shouted

'GRYFFINDOR!'

There was no applause as the son of the youngest Death Eater placed the hat back on the stool, his blond head bowed, and took uncertain steps towards the Gryffindor table, forcing his chin up and taking a seat at the end, away from everyone else.

Even as the sorting proceeding, the shock of the first Gryffindor Malfoy didn't fade until Al was called up, and despite his worries, he was sorted rather promptly into Gryffindor, and against her dad's words Rose felt her heart warm a little as he firmly seated himself next to Scorpius Malfoy and began talking to the lost little boy.

Rose was one of the last to be sorted, and as soon as her name was called, the hall broke into whispers again.

She approached the hat with trepidation and took her place on the stool.

'_Another Weasley..hmm?'_

'_Yes,'_ replied Rose nervously in her head.

'_Goodness knows I've had enough of you over the years, piling into Gryffindor and causing trouble!'_

Rose smiled inwardly and informed the hat that her brother and a few cousins were still to come.

'_Well, there's no doubt you have a great mind, little Weasley, but Ravenclaw's not for you, no with a will of steel and a brave heart like yours, it had better be _

'GRYFFINDOR!'

Flushing with happiness, Rose slid onto the Gryffindor bench across from Al and Malfoy, who were too absorbed in talking to even notice her.

'Al, you great prat, I'm in Gryffindor!'

Al turned his head and said well-done distractedly, before turning back to Malfoy.

Rose felt jealousy stirring inside her belly and scowled venomously at the blond who returned the look with a confused glance. Al caught Malfoy looking at Rose and frowned at Rose's glare.

'Scorpius, this is my cousin Rose, Rose this is my best friend Scorpius,' he introduced.

Rose regretted it the moment it left her lips, but she wanted to hurt this boy, Al was her best friend and had been since they were born.

'He's only in Gryffindor to spy on us Al, Merlin knows he doesn't belong here and never will!' she sad hotly.

Hurt and shock flashed across Scorpius' face and Al turned him away from Rose as he and Scorpius whispered under their breath, effectively blanking Rose.

Rose knew she deserved it, and felt sickened and sorry, and when she saw James giving her a thumbs up and mouthing appreciatively at her she felt even worse.

She had half a mind to apologise right there, but her pride stopped her, and she stared miserably at the table, only cheering up when her neighbours, two first years, Olivia Thomas and Matthias Clearwater, started talking to her. The guilt about Scorpius still niggled at the back of her mind, but she pushed it away, ignoring the sight of wounded metallic eyes in her mind.

Rose awoke the next day and spent some time getting to know her dorm mates whom she had rather neglected yesterday. There was Olivia who she knew from before, as her father was a friend of Rose's parents, a muggleborn named Ariana who seemed very nice if a little stuck up, a timid girl named Demetria Lovelace, and an outgoing girl named Calypso Rosier that Rose had met before, who was pretty and pure-blooded, and everyone was rather surprised she had been sorted into Gryffindor, as she came from a rather dark family with Death Eater sympathies, but the Rosiers were well known and liked and Rose began an instant friendship with Calypso.

Rose scrambled down the stairs, having returned to the dorm to find her lucky eagle feather quill, emerging at the bottom to find a red faced Scorpius Malfoy who's bag had been split open and was oozing a disgusting green liquid, Rose immediately suspected this was Fred and James, having had the same stuff put in her bed before.

'Are you alright, Malfoy?' Rose asked shyly, hoping he wasn't too angry about yesterday.

He turned abruptly and his eyes flashed when he saw her.

'Funnily enough, no, thanks to your Gryffindor buddies who think I'm a mini Death Eater and am hiding Voldemort in my house!'

Rose waved her wand over the bag, casting a cleaning charm she had heard her mother use before and cringed as the green liquid multiplied.

'STOP IT!' Scorpius roared.

'I-I didn't-

'DON'T YOU THINK I HAVE IT HARD ENOUGH ALREADY? THAT WAS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY! GET OUT, WEASLEY!'

The door to the common room opened and Rose's cousin Victoire, who was a prefect came in

'What's all this shouting?'

Wordlessly, Scorpius pointed to the bag and Victoire rolled her eyes at Fred and James and managed to instantly right it.

Scorpius curtly thanked her and began to stalk off before she caught his arm.

'Who has been doing this to you, Malfoy?'

Scorpius stiffened.

'I don't know, but dear Weasley over there managed to multiply the liquid somehow,'

Rose went red.

'I was trying to help, you great buffoon, that was a cleaning charm! Can't you even recognise one of those from your great poncy pureblood education?'

'That's quite enough, Rose!' said Victoire sternly, and Scorpius ran off to DADA with Rose trailing behind morosely.


	2. Chapter 2

It was the first Potions lesson of the term, and Rose stared at Professor Slughorn's quivering form with trepidation as he read from the list of partners.

"Oho! Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy! Of course I know Rose's parents, lovely, lovely people! Why I believe it was just a week ago I dropped in to the DMLE to see Hermione, she's doing awfully well!"

He winked conspiratorially at Rose, ignoring Scorpius' flushed face as he moved to sit next to her.

Half an hour later, their potion was progressing wonderfully albeit in a chilling silence, contrary to what Rose was expecting. She supposed Malfoy did get something from all those prissy tutors he must have had throughout his childhood.

His elbow awkwardly bumped hers.

"Look, Weasley-, I mean Rose, maybe we should try to get on? I mean we will be working together for the rest of the year,"

Rose was about to nod in relief just to end the awkwardly encompassing quiet, but then she remembered Scorpius' blond head bent to whisper into Al's ear, and how he'd embarrassed her in front of Victoire, her prettiest, cleverest cousin. All she had wanted was to do well! She felt her temper rising and hissed nastily

"You wish, Malfoy! As if I could ever even pretend to get on with an evil git like you!"

She regretted the words as soon as she said them, but the damage was done. His face was set stonily and he cut the lemongrass with a vicious rage.

As soon as the lesson had ended, he abruptly stalked over to Al and she knew he was telling him. Oh, what had she done?

Albus hadn't spoken to Rose in three days. She immersed herself in the library, becoming quieter and more withdrawn than ever. She was bent over a Transfiguration text when she felt a hand tapping her shoulder. She looked up to see Izar, the boy from the train, and Calypso Rosier.

"Would you like to come and sit with us?"

Nodding gratefully, she made her way over. She hadn't made as many friends as she would have liked, and her isolation from Albus was affecting her greatly. It felt nice to have company.

It turned out that Calypso and Izar were old friends, and Rose had a lovely afternoon with them. She felt, for the first time, truly happy in their company and left the library with a newfound spring in her step. She had her very own friends outside of her family!

She flung herself up the bannister only to whack into a surprised body, which flew backwards with her on top of it. She looked up into a steely pair of eyes.

"Watch where you're going next time, Weasley!" said Malfoy, rubbing the newly formed bruise on his head.

The malice in his eyes was all too evident. He just looked so _angry_. Rose decided there and then to heed her father's words from the platform. She hated Scorpius in that moment, really she did. She hated the derision in his eyes, the condescending tilt of his head and most of all, she hated the way he had stolen her best friend.

"I hate you so much, Malfoy!" she screamed, ducking past him and running to the sanctuary of the fat lady before the hot, angry tears could fall.


End file.
